Samsung has gotten a lot of attention this year for its iPad challenger, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but a lot of people forget about the company’s first foray into the Android tablet world, the simple Galaxy Tab. With a 7 inch screen and running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and carrying the Android Market, the original Tab was the one decent offering in 2010, a year full of cheap, low-end tablets running Froyo and little else. Now, Samsung has updated its little upstart into the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, and the results are impressive. The new Tab runs the tablet-oriented Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and carries slightly beefier specs than its big brother, the Tab 10.1 (the dual-core 1gHz Tegra 2 processor has been bumped up to a 1.2 gHz dual-core Exynos). All told, it makes for an impressive package.
Look and Feel
The 7.0 Plus fits right in with the rest of Samsung’s never-ending parade of Honeycomb tablets. Same black bezel and grey back, in a handy little package designed for wide-screen video. It’s extremely light, even compared to 7-inch competitors like the Amazon Kindle Fire. The 7.0 Plus weighs in at just 345g to the Kindle’s 413g. Compared to most tablets, it feels so small and light that it takes a moment to realize just how thick it is. Not exactly a fatty at 9.96mm, it tops the much larger Tab 10.1 by over 1mm.
The 7.0 Plus maintains the solid build quality I’ve come to expect from premier Samsung devices. The light weight doesn’t leave the impression of cheap construction, just tiny size. And I do mean tiny. This is the only tablet I’ve ever used where I felt like I could operate it one-handed (though admittedly this feat involved a bit of a balancing act).
I was a bit surprised by the layout of much of the external hardware. The Tab 10.1 was clearly designed for landscape operation. In contrast, the 7.0 Plus feels like the designers couldn’t figure out which way you should hold it. The speakers are both on the bottom in portrait mode, and the device is small enough that I could see that being convenient for most uses while listening to music. Video is far better in landscape mode, and that means your stereo sound is all coming from your right (assuming you aren’t covering them completely with your right hand). The IR blaster has to be used in landscape mode, and the volume controls feel backwards in landscape mode, with the volume up button on the left, causing the animation to move right. These are small complaints, and were easy to adapt to, but they came as a surprise after seeing the 10.1.
Getting Started
Since I first looked at the Tab 10.1, Samsung has brought a version of TouchWiz to Honeycomb. Thankfully it’s a lot less intrusive than the phone version. You do get the power control widget in the notification area, now scrollable and expanded to seven icons (why couldn’t that be on the Stratosphere?), as well as a button to bring up a dock with some basic utilities, like the calculator and calendar.
What’s To Like
Despite some recent studies on the problems with the 7-inch form factor, I have to say I love this size. I never had any trouble even on a rooted Nook Color, and the lighter weight and smaller bezel of the Tab 7.0 Plus made it a simple pleasure to use. And the fact that the 7.0 Plus fits in a coat pocket means it fits into my work-flow far better than its larger sibling ever did. This is the first tablet I’ve found myself comfortable using on a constant basis, easily filling roles that I would otherwise turn to a smartphone for. That experience didn’t disappoint on quality, either. The 7.0 Plus boasts an impressive 1024×600 resolution screen. Sound quality was excellent, if a bit one-sided while watching landscape videos. Battery life was easily enough to make it through a full day’s activities.
The best part about the 7.0 Plus though has to be performance. This is one of the smoothest-running devices it’s ever been my pleasure to handle. With the exception of the usual slow transition between portrait and landscape views (which Android can’t seem to shake even on the Galaxy Nexus for some reason), this device operates with no lag, stuttering, or slow-downs. In the few weeks I had the opportunity to test it, not one app that I would consider stable elsewhere gave me a force-close or error of any kind.
Samsung included the microSD card slot that I missed in the larger model, on top of the solid 16 GB of internal storage. I’d actually have been more forgiving of the absence on the smaller device, given the space constraints, but Samsung managed to find room this time.
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